The Senate Week

Work Done.

Last week, the U. S. Senators:

Finally rejected the credentials of Senator-elect Frank Leslie Smith of Illinois (see below).

Amended and passed the $89,000,000 appropriations bill for the Departments of State, Justice, Commerce, Labor; sent it back to the House for conference.

Senator-reject. The Senate dealt finally with Frank Leslie Smith of Illinois. It rejected his credentials for a seat, 61 votes to 23, declaring the credentials "tainted with fraud and corruption" and Mr. Smith "not entitled to membership." Democrats and irregular Republicans were joined by Republican-leader Curtis of Kansas in the decision. While a cry went up that the Senate had invaded a constitutional right of Illinois, the Senate's reasons and actions went on record, in effect, as follows:

Smith was public utilities commissioner of Illinois. He entered the 1926 Senatorial primary. Samuel Insull, public utilities boss, contributed heavily to his expenses. Smith was nominated. Corruption was charged. The amount of the Insull contributions ($171,500) was published and discussed in Illinois. Illinois elected Smith notwithstanding.

The U. S. Senate resolved to investigate the Smith election before he reached Washington. The investigators reported that, while Illinois might be satisfied with the Smith election (including the primary), the Senate could not be satisfied.*

When Smith presented his credentials at the Senate door in November, the Senators refused to admit him even temporarily, on the ground that his election had already been investigated and reported on. He begged a further hearing. He received it. But new evidence as he presented failed to alter his investigators' original decision. Then came the final rejection, giving Illinois notice that it must fill the vacant seat in some manner other than the manner it had approved in the election of Smith.

Mr. Smith refused to accept his rejection, regarding himself as an agent of his State, duty-bound to fight out an issue between Illinois and the U. S. Senate. Governor Small of Illinois refused to appoint a successor to Smith, lest the "vacancy" be thus admitted by Illinois to be legal. The Illinois decision last week was to re-elect Smith, if possible, next autumn rather than go to court against the Senate at once.

The Fat Boy. To every school its "fat boy." To every club and circus its "biggest freak." The U. S. Senate, "greatest club in the world," school for Presidents, outstanding sideshow of the country, has Senator James Thomas ("Tom-Tom") Heflin.

Imagine an enormous male doll, bigger than most policemen. Its ruddy skin has a waxen glow. There is a wiglike perfection to its yellow tonsure. Its puffy hands make pawing gestures. Upon its gentle mouth is an infantine wetness. The staring eyes are china-blue and someone has dressed up this prodigious toy in a swaying, broadtailed coat, canary waistcoat, blue velvet tie, patent leather shoes. Its breath is stertorous, mechanical; its tread is elephantine; its vocal chords match its tread--for this doll can talk--and bawl-- and bellow. It looks and talks like one of the footmen from Alice in Wonderland.

The above description would exactly fit Senator Heflin if he were not a human being. But he is human. He was born 59 years ago in Alabama, which illiterate but fast improving State first sent him to Congress in 1904, to the Senate in 1920.

Fat boys, dubs and freaks are sat upon, whipped into shape, gaped at or pitied, as the case may be. Or, by serious people, they are ignored. To his raging humiliation, newsgatherers did start a practice last year of leaving the Senate galleries so soon as Senator Heflin got up to talk. But from the nature of their "greatest club," other Senators cannot sit on their preposterous colleague, nor wholly ignore him. They must address him as they would be addressed, with windy ceremony. They must "give him the floor" and let him sprawl upon it. This is hard enough for Republicans but for his Democratic teammates, Senator Heflin is as embarrassing as he is painful. They cannot whip him into shape. They cannot send him home. They must humor him, bear with him.

One day last week the "greatest club" was just settling down, as its funnyman (Senator Moses of New Hampshire) put it, to "declare vacant an empty seat" (see above), when up raised the bulk of Senator Heflin. Senators groaned. They knew what was coming.

Senator Heflin hates and fears the Roman Pope with a furious, mouthing phobia. And Senator Heflin was lately connected, in the Hearst press, with a viciously false charge of bribery by Catholic-bating Mexico. Senator Heflin had been swiftly and cleanly exonerated by a committee of his colleagues. Publisher Hearst had been scathingly denounced. But this was to be Senator Heflin's speech of self-vindication, the retribution of a monomaniac. When he opened his roaring mouth, busy people fled and sightseers came tumbling in for places. Before they had caught their breaths, Senator Heflin was already breathing hard. . . .

". . . The despicable Hearst-Mexican scandal," he bellowed, ". . . is the direct result of a conspiracy on the part of certain Roman Catholics to frame, injure and if possible to destroy me* for the work I did in the Senate/- to defeat the efforts of the Knights of Columbus and the Roman Catholic hierarchy to involve the United States in war with Mexico on behalf of the Catholic Church!

"The man from whom Hearst got the forged papers is a Roman Catholic! . . . Hearst's wife is a Roman Catholic! . . ."

Then followed a rehearsal of Roman Catholic activities in the U. S. two years ago when Roman Catholics were sore oppressed by the Calles Government in Mexico and when "I was the only Senator who laid bare the Roman Catholic program to get us in war." Then followed a sheaf of recent letters and telegrams to Heflin from anti-Catholics, of which the following sentiment by one H. C. Haddy Jr. of Camden, N. C., was typical: ". . . Seems like your friends the Roman Catholics hit you a foul blow. . . ."

Then followed regurgitation of the two-year-old "war" scare. Then 56 lines of doggerel verse** in reply to the man who last year moved in the Alabama Legislature that Senator Heflin be made a U. S. Admiral, to guard the Atlantic coast against Romish invasion by his blasts of hot air.

Next followed querulous roaring about how Roman Catholics kept Heflin speeches from the mails; about how Heflin lectured on Mexico; about Roman Catholic conspiracies discovered by Heflin from Buffalo to Dubuque. . . .

The Hearst-Mexican scandal seemed almost forgotten, until Senator Robinson of Arkansas, Democratic leader in the Senate, interposed. Senator Robinson, as a member of the committee that investigated the Hearst-Mexican documents, reminded the Senate that Senator Heflin had been fully exonerated. Senator Robinson also said: "... I think it unworthy of the Senator from Alabama to declare that the fact, if it be a fact,* that Mrs. Hearst is a Catholic, is in any way responsible for the publication of these documents.

"I hold no brief for Mr. Hearst. . . . But there is, Sir, in my judgment, not one word of testimony . . . that justifies the inference asserted by the Senator from Alabama that the Catholic Church or Catholic agencies inspired or prompted the forgeries for the purpose of humiliating or disgracing him or for any other purpose.

"It may be that in the future . . . the committee will be able to ascertain or to identify the guilty parties. . . ."

Heflin: "Mr. President, will the gentleman yield right there? ... So far as I am concerned, I am going to object to the Senator from Arkansas remaining on that committee any longer. He feels called on to try to answer my speech today. ... I do not think he is fair to me and as a Representative of the Democratic Party I repudiate his speech!"

Democratic-leader Robinson took this insubordination calmly. Other members of the Hearst-investigating committee got up to confirm his opinion of the alleged Roman Catholic "conspiracy." But Senator Heflin continued insubordinate. This time the fight waxed hot.

Heflin: ". . . The Senator from Arkansas cannot remain leader of the Democrats and fight the Roman Catholics' battle/- every time the issue is raised in this body without some expression from a constitutional Democrat!

Robinson: "Mr. President, whenever the Senator from Alabama can determine who shall be the leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate of the United States, that party can get somebody else than myself to lead it here."

Heflin: "Well, you have my consent to do that now. . . ."

Robinson: "Mr. President, I think the Senator from Alabama had better not interrupt me."

Heflin: "Well, I will say--"

Vice President Dawes: "The Senator from Arkansas has the floor."

Robinson: "... I have heard the Senator from Alabama a dozen times during the last year make what he calls his anti-Catholic speech. I have heard him denounce the Catholic Church and the Pope of Rome and the cardinal and the bishop and the priest and the nun until I am sick and tired of it, as a Democrat."

Heflin: "I would like to have the Senator make that speech in Arkansas."

Robinson: "I will make that speech in Arkansas, and I will make it in Alabama, too."

Heflin: "If you do, they will tar and feather you."

Robinson: "Oh, yes. That shows the prescriptive spirit which dwells in the bosom of my friend from Alabama."

Heflin: "No --"

Robinson: ". . . That is illustrative, my friends, of how a good man can go wrong, and how far wrong he can go, and what a fool he can make of himself after he has gone wrong."

Heflin: "Mr. President, I was replying --

Robinson: "Mr. President, I have the floor. I will yield to the Senator if he will courteously address me. . . . I am going to call a conference tomorrow, and I challenge the Senator from Alabama to come before the conference and move the election of another leader for the Democratic Party of the Senate."

Heflin: "Mr. President--"

Robinson: "We will take a vote on the subject there and find out whether the Senator from Alabama is entitled to discredit millions of good citizens of the United States in the name of the Democratic Party because of their religion."

Heflin: "Now, Mr. President the Senator from Arkansas misunderstood entirely what I said. . . .

"Before I rose the Senator said I had said something that was unworthy of me. If that is not lecturing me, what is it?"

Robinson: "Yes; I did say that it was unworthy of the Senator from Alabama. . . . I say now to the Senator from Alabama, in moderate language, that I am amazed, I am amazed beyond the power of expression, that he would bring the name of a lady into this controversy, even though she be a Catholic."

Heflin: "What wrong was there in doing that, if she is?"

Robinson: "If the Senator cannot recognize it, I do not propose to waste the time of the Senate in telling him. A man of a chivalrous spirit would hold William R. Hearst responsible, rather than assail the wife of William R. Hearst, who is totally inoffensive, so far as I know, in this connection."

Heflin: "I am responsible for it, and I resent the Senator--"

Robinson: "And I think it is unworthy of the Senator from Alabama--"

Heflin: "It is unworthy of you to say that."

Robinson: "All right. I cannot settle that with the Senator from Alabama. It is another fact about which we differ. . . . "

Mr. President if I had my way about it, I would stop Catholics from abusing Protestants and Protestants from abusing Catholics. . . ."

Heflin: "Would the Senator suppress free speech in the Senate? . . ."

Robinson: "... The trouble about the Senator from Alabama is that he takes himself so seriously that he thinks he can dictate to the whole Democratic Party what is right."

Heflin: "No--"

Robinson: "And I do not think he can do so."

Heflin: "And I do not think--"

And so on, and on, and on. Senator Heflin had many last words, including raucous sideswipes at Candidate Alfred Emanuel Smith. One phrase made the galleries guffaw. "Mr. President," Heflin said, "I have no religious prejudice. I am simply a wholehearted American."

Senator Walsh, grim Montana Democrat, at last reminded the chamber what its business had been before his colleague began to roar. Funnyman Moses made a quip about "those speeches that have been made today in behalf of the Republican party." And eventually the Senate went out to recess.

Next morning, before the bell, there was a Democratic caucus. Although again notified specifically by letter, Senator Heflin. for some reason ("a misunderstanding." he blustered later), did not appear. The Democrats voted, 35 to 1, their confidence in Senator Robinson as Democratic leader and, by inference, their disgust with Senator Heflin. Democrats eyed askance the one man, Senator Park Trammell of Florida, who tagged along with the Senate "fat boy" against the captain of his team.

When next the Senate met, funny Senator Moses said he was surprised by Heflin's "complete and abject surrender." It was a stupid, sorry jape, for up lunged Heflin again to deny that he had been "rebuked." He bawled out that Leader Robinson had been "cowardly" about the caucus.

Marveling at the inanities of their highest legislative body, citizens wondered why the Heflin frock coat could not be replaced by a straitjacket. They wondered how the Senate's "fat boy" was regarded in Alabama.* Some answers to the latter query were published during the week.

The Montgomery Advertiser said: "What a callous and wretched demagogue Heflin is. What a disgrace. . . . How humiliating and depressing. ... O that this cup might pass from the lips of this people!" To emphasize its repudiation of Heflin, the Advertiser declared for Candidate Smith.

The Montgomery Journal said: "Alabamians must hang their heads in shame. . . . It was a disgraceful performance. . . . Governor Smith is not the man for the Democrats to nominate and the whole South knows it, but Senator Heflin is doing more to bring about his nomination than any other man in the United States. . . ."

The Mobile Register said: "... 'Tar and feathers.' It is not true. It slanders the state."

The Birmingham Age-Herald said: ". . . Not many sober-minded citizens of Alabama . . . will fail to be mortified by his astounding exhibition of rabid intolerance, shockingly wretched taste and naked disdain for the most precious of American principles. . . ."

The Birmingham Post said : " . . . The Democratic Party is the loser but the shame is Alabama's."

Dothan Eagle: "... Oh, Heflin! Oh, Hell!"

Senator Robinson was showered with congratulations for rebuking Heflin, who thereupon announced that he too had been congratulated. In Lafayette, Ala., the Heflin home town, the Sun stated : "Leading men of Lafayette and Chambers County thoroughly approve Heflin's stand."

Asked Columnist Heywood Brown of the New York World: "Why is it that the Republican Party has rather more than its fair share of the rogues and the Democratic Party practically all the idiots?"

*Here was the constitutional nub of the question, as the Senate saw it. The Senate's ablest constitutional lawyers, including Senator Borah, were of the opinion that the Constitution makes the Senate the ultimate judge of the character of elections of U. S. Senators by and in the States.

*Actually fearing assault, Senator Heflin is said to go armed at all times. Some years ago in Washington, he hurled a Negro from a tram, fumbled out a revolver, shot at the falling Negro, missed him, wounded a white man in the hip.

/-During the 69th Congress (1925-27).

**Typical excerpts: And fame it is for Edmondson The Vatican choir will sing As he crawls on his all fours To kiss the Cardinal's ring. . . . They'll pour soft music in his ears And sing to him, hi, ho Then take him to where the Pope is And let him kiss his toe. . . .

*Mrs. Hearst was once a Catholic but was married in a Protestant church and was therefore automatically excommunicated.

/-Senator Robinson, son of a Baptist, is a Methodist.

*The nature of the Heflin-Robinson debate was fully recorded by having the participants appear, later, hours apart, in a "movietone" studio, where each extended his remarks and gestured characteristically before lens and microphone.